Dear Peter,
At Australia Post, we are doing everything possible to keep delivering during the coronavirus pandemic. Almost all of our Post Offices are still open, while our posties and drivers are working to get parcels delivered to your customers.
With our business adapting to the challenges the current pandemic presents, our normal practice of delivery has been impacted. We are experiencing significant delivery delays due to limited flights, hygiene and social distancing requirements in our network (such as one person unloading a loose load trailer which halves productivity) and an increase in parcel volumes as more people shop online.
We appreciate the current delays are causing frustration and increased customer enquiries for both you and our contact centre. We have made some important changes to some of our tracking notifications to provide your customers with more information about the progress of their delivery.
We have a new notification – “We’ve got your delivery details” – which will now be the first notification sent to consumers when Australia Post has confirmed receipt of the manifest. We have also updated the “It’s on its way” notification to include information about delivery delays and refer customers to find out more detail on our website. Click here to see the enhanced notification experience and suggested messaging for your use to explain the delays.
You will be aware the Federal Government has announced it will soon implement changes to allow Australia Post to operate under relaxed regulatory requirements, including removing the Priority Mail letter product, delivering letters every second business day in metropolitan areas (with no change to delivery frequency in rural or remote areas), and extending the delivery times for regular intrastate letters to five days after the day of posting.
For Priority Mail, we will honour any customer orders and/or known lodgements and will support and keep you updated as we continue to work through the detail on these changes.
For those of you who use pre-purchased retail packaging, the Express Post guarantee of next day delivery with the Express Post network has been temporarily suspended due to the significant reduction of domestic passenger flights (which carry parcels), social distancing and hygiene requirements in our network, and the increase in volumes. Express Post is still available, but parcels may not be delivered next business day every time.
As a reminder, for information about changes to the letter service, up to date details on delays and impacts including any Post Office closures, please visit our website.
Our people continue to work tirelessly under difficult circumstances to support you and your customers so we appreciate your ongoing support in treating them with the courtesy and respect they deserve.
Thank you very much for your understanding and stay safe.
Kind regards,
Gary Starr
Executive General Manager
Business and Government